


Setting Darkness

by Aranduriel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Aurors, Centaurs, Dark, Death Eater Harry Potter, Death Eaters, Elves, F/M, Goblins, Identity Reveal, M/M, Ministry of Magic, Mystery, Mythical Beings & Creatures, No Underage Sex, Nymphs & Dryads, Orcs, Original Character(s), Politics, Romance, Secret Identity, Secret Relationship, Sirens, Time Skips, Time Travel, Vampires, Veela, Werewolves, Wizards, incubus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 11:19:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9817871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aranduriel/pseuds/Aranduriel
Summary: It's in the nature of mankind to preserve itself, and when a whole race is in danger of extinction only hard measures can save them. Or so they think. Now the elf Calanon, formely known as Harry Potter, must save his own race from those he fought for a long time ago. LV/HP, Timetravel





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Setting Darkness  
> Autor: Aranduriel  
> Rating: M  
> Summary: It's in the nature of mankind to preserve itself, and when a whole race is in danger of extinction only hard measures can save them. Or so they think. Now the elf Calanon, formely known as Harry Potter, must save his own race from those he fought for a long time ago. LV/HP, Timetravel  
> Warnings: Slash, Violence, Dark and Mature themes, Timetravel, AU, OOC, OCs, Spoilers from book 1-5  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the Characters in the books. All belong to J.K.Rowling I only own the plot and my own characters.

###### 

_Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton_

###### 

Two men were leaning over the ancient desk, one with fair hair and blue eyes the other one with dark hair and green eyes, studying what appeared to be strange writings with symbols instead of letters.

"Are you sure?” Asked the blonde one while studying his friend. "This could go wrong in so many ways."

The other one looked up from the ancient texts he was reading and sighed unhappily. "Yes, like I told you many times before. I am sure. This has to be done Thandion."

Thandion shook his head, making the blonde locks fly around him. "But you don't even know how to do it, if it is even possible." He further argued.

His friend gave him a brief glance from the corner of his eye before he focused into the writings once more. "I'll find a way. We know that it is possible in theory." He said while running his fingers through his hair.

Thandion looked desperately at him. "Come on Calanon. Can't we just leave the damn wizards alone. They'll probably obliterate each other anyway before the century is over." He paused before speaking again. This time slowly. "I know you grew up amongst them but..." He stopped, clearly not knowing how to continue.

Calanon looked up sharply. His eyes blazing like emerald fires. "Yes. And before they kill each other they'll try to immigrate all the magical beings into their society in a desperate attempt to save their race. They already made laws that all the unmated magical creatures that live amongst the wizarding population must mate with a wizard or face death penalty. Right now only the Veela are affected because they normally live amongst them but because they are all fleeing from the wizards it won't take long before they also turn to us."

Thandion looked doubtful. "We are elves. How can little wizards affect us with their inferior magic?" He started, pointing out at his pointy ears. "And their numbers have declined heavily in the last few decades because of their petty wars."

Calanon nodded. "Their magic may not be as powerful as ours but they can use it on a wider range. We are creatures of the nature. That's where our power primarily lies and an ordinary wizard cannot do much to us, but a group of them could take down an elf. Not a powerful one, mind you, but a magically weak one will be enough for them." He stopped, as if considering something. "And the other beings are in more danger than us. For the sake of balance we have to do something."

Thandion looked thoughtfully at him. "Let's say you found a way to travel back in time, what do you plan to do then? How will you stop the population from declining so strongly?"

Calanon shrugged. "I will decide what to do when I'm there."

Thandion nodded slowly. "Do what you think is the best. There is no way to get you around anyway. I have guarding duty for the night. I'll see you tomorrow then." He said resigned.

Calanon nodded and waved his friend goodbye.

###### 

Calanon threw the book across the room in his frustration. Seriously, were there no useful books about time travel in the Grand Library of Dranyohr.*

He sighed and shook his head. He had been searching for an answer for months but he couldn't even find the smallest clue about his problem. Yes, there were the time-turners, of course, but with those you could only go back a few hours, a day at most, but what he needed was years. He could probably find an answer if he researched the topic for years but he didn't have that kind of time. What he needed was a solution that could be used straight away.

He looked out of the window to the city and the forest in the background. It didn't look good for the magical beings. Because of the rising issues between the white magic users and the black magic users a long overdue conflict had erupted between the wizards; Voldemort against Dumbledore, white against black. Then he had thought that the conflict was right, that it served for a good cause. Now he knew better.

Calanon looked away. The Magic most wizards used had no colour. All that mattered was the intent. You didn't get tainted or were a better person if you used different magic. But, of course, this all changed if a human decided to dwell into the magic of the nature; rituals, necromancy, heavy illusions and elemental magic. For these kinds of magic you needed to absorb the energy of the nature and could easily get lost, if you were a human that is. For elves, absorbing the energy of the nature was as instinctive as inhaling fresh air. But most humans couldn't use this kind of magic anyway. In fact, he knew of only one human who could: Voldemort.

For centuries, the government of the wizards had been in the hands of the white wizards. They had repressed the dark wizards for years and this had concluded in a great civil war. They fought for years, trying to overpower the other, but in the end their population just declined rapidly because of the deaths. When Voldemort was finally killed, a purge against the dark wizards followed. They all got killed. Now the wizards had only a fraction of their original numbers and obviously a breeding problem and their solution was breeding with magical creatures, bringing in fresh blood, to increase their numbers again. Of course the Magical beings weren't exactly sympathetic to the idea. Now they were fleeing and the wizards hunting.

To be honest, he also carried some fault in the matter.

He had been born in the wizarding world under the name of Harry Potter. His mother, Lily Evans, had been seduced by an Elf and got pregnant with his baby. Of course she never told her husband, James Potter, about her misdeed and pretended that the baby was his. Being the smart witch that she was, she had managed to find his father where countless others had failed and made him do an illusion on the baby in the womb. After his birth, she had decided that she would tell him about his elven ancestry when he was old enough to keep it a secret. Of course she didn't live long enough to tell when Voldemort attacked. He was sent to his magic hating aunt and her family where he lived until his eleventh birthday. After that he went to Hogwarts, a school for witches and wizards and learned that he was apparently a very famous wizard because he had survived the attack on his family when he was but a baby. Unusually he had been able to do some wizarding magic, but it wasn't good enough. People thought that he was magically very weak and it raised doubts about him being the boy-who-lived. No one, including himself, knew of course that he was only half-wizard and the genes of elves tented to be dominant on the magical side. So, he wasn't weak, he just couldn't do the kind of magic wizards usually did. You didn't need strong magic to destroy magical artefacts. So that's what he did and in the end got Voldemort killed.

He sighed. This wasn't getting anywhere. There wasn't anything left in the damn library that he hadn't looked through and there still wasn't anything.

"You know, you could have asked me for answers if you needed them so badly." Said someone behind him.

He whirled around to see who had spoken and came face to face with Eruantien.

He frowned. "And you have the answers I need, Alter Mann?*"

Eruantien smiled mysteriously, for once a smile reaching his eyes.

"No." He said calmly.

Calanon frowned. "Then why ar-"

Eruantien interrupted him. "But I know the place where you can find your answers."

"Oh?" He said sceptically. "And where might this mysterious place be?"

Eruantien didn't say anything for a while, just observing him.

Calanon sighed and looked out of the window. Eruantien was old. Older than any other elf he had met before, perhaps even older than the last king. The red haired elf didn't mix with people. In fact it was very rare to see him in such a public place. He had usually more luck with the old elf than others but for him to actively seek him out. It was... Unusual.

He looked up when the other elf spoke again.

"Follow me." He said and started walking towards the exit, not even turning around to see if he was followed.

Calanon shook his head and followed the elf with a slight smile

###### 

They walked for a while, passing familiar hallways and statues and after a while they entered a section of the castle that was unknown to him, which was unusual enough. After a few secret passages, which he tried to memorize as best as he could, they finally stopped in front of a magnificent door. It was made of pure gold with diamonds paved around it.  
"Is this the place?" He curiously asked the other elf.

Eruantien nodded. "This is your birthright. Your father told me to bring you here when you were ready."

Calanon twisted around. "What do you mean my father-" he stopped abruptly.

Eruantien was gone.

He snarled and hit a hole into the wall in his anger. Damn it, Damn it, Damn it. He closed his eyes and weakly let himself slide to the ground.

His father was a very sore topic for him. He had left him after making sure that he looked like a human before his birth and never emerged from the shadows again, but he knew that was only partly true. He might not have seen his father but he was always there. What he had thought in the past as an amazing luck in the direst situations was, as he knew now, in fact his father helping him out from the shadows. But why didn't he come out. He obviously cared so why? Why?

Calanon opened his emerald eyes.

Now wasn't the time to immerse himself into his father issues again.

He stood up swiftly and approached the golden door. There wasn't a handle on it so he tried to open it by pushing but it was of no use. The door didn't even budge.

He frowned. Eruantien had called it his birthright so...

He smiled. "Clever old elf."

He bent down and quickly drew a dagger out of his boot. He studied it for a moment. A dagger passed down from father to son for generations. For elves this meant Millennia...  
He shook his head and cut his palm with the dagger until it bled and before the wound could close smeared it on the door. He didn't have to wait long before the door opened easily with a 'click' and the contents of the chamber was revealed to him.

It was a medium sized room. Nothing special really, just a medieval kind of living room with old armchairs, carpets, old paintings and a fireplace. Two doors were leading away from the room which on a closer inspection revealed an old style bedchamber and a library.

Calanon grinned. Eruantien wouldn't have brought him here if the answers he was so desperately searching for weren't here. He had a very good idea of where he was and thus the library here should be much more specific.

And so the elf started going through the library of the mysterious chambers.

It didn't take long to go through the titles of all the books as there were notable less books here than in the grand library. They were strictly about some kind of magic and he even found some about time but all that was written was about theories or some useless comments.

He closed the last book with more force then necessary, making the dust on it fly around, and lay it on the table. And here he had thought that he could find his answers here. Perhaps he should just give up and find a solution about stopping the humans with force...

Disappointed, he walked towards the bedchamber. Perhaps his head would be clearer after a night of good sleep. He entered the chamber and threw himself into the bed. He was lucky it had been held clean through old enchantments. If only something wasn't stinging on his side.

He frowned and fished with his hand for the annoying thing and drew it out of the blanket.

He frowned further when he saw what it was.

It was an old papyrus with a message written on it.

_You'll find your answer in the ancient shores of Cronus found in Keros_

He sighed. Seriously, he had been searching for hours in the library for an answer and this is where he found his anticipated solution? For he was sure that this was the answer. Why else would Eruantien bring him here if there wasn't an answer? He knew that it wasn't the old elf who had laid the clue on the bed, for he knew that wasn't his handwriting, but he would worry about the writer later. For now he had to go find this Keros. It obviously was a place on the sea.

A map revealed it to be a Greek Island.

###### 

The sun was rising over the sea when two elves walked on the shores of the island. Calanon was walking beside a female elf. A beautiful woman of silver-blonde hair and grey eyes in a tight leathered dress with a sword on her back. They walked until they arrived before an ancient temple of the old times. Dedicated to the titan Cronus, or Saturn as he was called by the old Romans.

They stood there for a while, watching the sunrise.

"You are pretty silent today, unusually so." Calanon said while watching her out of the corner of his eye.

The female elf named Cugedhiel didn't even look at him when she answered. "If we are successful today and you find what you are looking for, then we might never see each other again. Who knows what will happen in the past, and the fact that I don't remember you from before you came to us just supports that something happened to you in the past..." Her voice broke, and when she abruptly turned to face him he could see the tears swimming in her eyes. "Don't do this Calanon. I know we can get rid of the humans if you let us go against them. Please..."

Calanon looked away, and as if this was a confirmation Cugedhiel stopped talking, and sighed heavily. "What am I talking anyway. You'll do what you want to do in the end no matter what we say." She said resigned.

Calanon smiled slightly. "Come on Cugedhiel, we have work to do."

The she-elf grinned sinisterly. "Then let's go!" She said loudly and walked forward to the temple, not even a sign of her previous sadness present on her face.

Calanon shivered. "Well at least she doesn't behave strangely anymore. Her behaviour was starting to creep me out." He murmured as he followed her into the temple.

"What did you say?" He heard Cugedhiel ask from inside the temple.

He stilled at once. "I said Eruantien starts to creep me out"

###### 

In the end they found an ancient device in the temple. It looked like a time-turner that had seen too many summers, but it was what he had been searching for. From the type of the magic it contained he came to the conclusion that it was pretty wild magic he was planning on messing with. He couldn't predict how far he would go back. It may be as far as thousands of years or just a few minutes. He couldn't know, but he was going to risk it anyway.

And so came the day he would depart. The other elves were against it of course, some for personal reasons others not so, but in the end he said his goodbyes and retreated to the chambers Eruantien had showed him that fateful day.

Only he wasn't the only one in there.

There was someone standing before the fireplace, obviously waiting for him. He was wearing a black robe, its hood shadowing his face. He was tall and lean-muscled, but a male obviously. He was not welcome.

Calanon narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?" He asked. His voice even and clear without an ounce of emotion in it.

The male chuckled. And suddenly he could feel his power. It was huge. He was powerful, very powerful. In fact, he had never met someone so powerful before. But nevertheless he could feel instinctively that the elf, for he could only be an elf, wasn't dangerous for him. Just who was he?

The elf spoke quietly. "Channelling magic into the device by yourself could be very dangerous for the one to take the journey through time. I'm here to help you." He said.  
Calanon looked doubtful. "And why should I trust you?" He asked.

The other elf chuckled slowly. "I know you trust me instinctively, even though you have no idea why. You will hear my reasons when the time is right. Now stop being a whelp and let me help you."

Calanon wanted to protest, he really did, but he couldn't find it in himself to do so. He knew the other elf was telling the truth and that it would be wise to follow his lead. So he didn't say anything, and just took the ancient time-turner out of his pocket and held it to the stranger.

The other elf took it while explaining to him what to do. "I will channel nature magic in it and you will just hold it. You cannot even leak a little of your own magic to the device, it could have disastrous consequences. You ready?" He asked.

Calanon nodded and together they held the device. The nameless elf channelling magic into it, and Calanon just holding it. After a few seconds the surroundings started to blur. A wind started to spin around them, and the last thing he saw before darkness surrounded him was the face of the other elf. Midnight black hair and blue eyes, and a satisfied smile.

###### 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Dranyohr: The capitol of the Elven haven in the Northern Boreal Forests of Canada.  
> *Alter Mann: Old man in German.  
> A/N: English is not my first language and I don't have a beta-reader so errors are to be expected. I would be very delighted about Reviews.


	2. Chapter 1: Criminal

###### 

_“There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The boundary between them is not clearly defined.” ~Albert Camus_

###### 

### Chapter 1: Criminal

_November 5, 1966_

He watched the street while stirring his coffee, not really giving it any attention. The shop he sat in belonged to a nice family for generations, selling homemade cakes, fresh coffee and tea to anyone who needed a place to take a break from their hectic lives or meet with their friends and family to have a good time. There were of course also people like him sitting there, watching for a suspicious witch or wizard among the muggles, having robbed the jewelry shop around the east corner of the Diagon Alley. 

He frowned. 

Well, so maybe not that many people like him.

He paused in his thoughts when he saw something in the corner of his eye. Carefully he raised his wand and muttered a spell before speaking.

“I see her. Following now.” 

Without waiting for confirmation, he sat up and left the small café, ignoring the suspicious look the customer sitting on the next table gave him.

###### 

Walking through a busy street in Muggle Paris was a red haired, blue eyed witch in her middle ages. She walked swiftly through the crowd, holding her sackful of reward tightly in her hands.

Carlisa Letitia was having a good day. 

Finally, after decades of ups and downs, she, the infamous ginger witch*, had everything she ever desired in the aforementioned sack. Meaning a lot of priceless diamonds, freshly stolen. It hadn’t been easy. She had to convince the clerk that she wanted to indeed buy some diamonds for the decoration of her darling daughters 17th birthday so that he would take them out to show her. Next she had to hit him with a complex charm that didn’t trigger the alarm system and make him absolutely want to give her the diamonds on his own will. It was of course not the Imperius Curse, that would have triggered the alarms, but a charm of her own making. Afterwards she had used her emergency Portkey towards France.

She giggled. Oh, it had been so easy-

She paused when she felt the tip of a wand on her temple, and a warm breath behind her ear.

The voice was a deep masculine with a typical English accent, which made her shudder. “I believe that you have something that doesn’t belong to you Mrs. Letitia.” The man behind her said. 

She had to cough before answering. “I am an American witch. You don’t have the jurisdiction to arrest me since I’m neither from you country, nor are we in your country.”  
When he didn’t immediately answer, she smiled. Thinking she had won.

She spoke with more confidence. “Now if you would please release me, I’ll be on my way and…” Her voice suddenly broke when she felt the familiar feeling of being pulled by behind the navel.

Immediately she started to struggle and shout. “No! You can’t do this. It is against to law to Portkey someone without their agreement.” Her voice broke when he laughed. 

“Sorry Mrs. Letitia. We are on English soil now, so you’ll have to complain to the Council of Magical Law about your problems. Carlisa Letitia I’m taking you in for robbery with bodily harm, the clerk you attacked is in a bad shape due to your imperfect charm,-” He said emotionlessly while pushing her towards a familiar telephone booth. She reached towards her back pocket, smiling triumphantly when her fingertips touched the smooth wood of her wand.

“-and don’t even think about drawing your wand if you don’t want me to break it.” He continued, but she didn’t listen and took her wand out of her back pocket with a nasty curse on her lips.

Then she only held half of her wand, the other half laying on the ground. She whirled around and looked at the Auror in horror. 

“What did you do?!” She shouted. “You can’t break the wand of a witch without court order.” She shrieked out, only incidentally noticing his handsome profile.

He watched her through his emerald eyes, unimpressed with her display. “You should have thought of that before attacking me. I have the right to defend myself after all.” He smirked then and held her arms behind her back before speaking again. “Come on Mrs. Letitia. We are late as it is because of your antics.” Then he started pushing her towards the booth.

She kicked and screamed but couldn’t change the inevitable. Ten minutes later, she was sitting miserably in a holding cell located in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.  
Harry watched the witch he had been observing for the last week from behind the desk he was sitting on to fill in the paperwork. He got the order to shadow her after they had gotten the intel that she was plotting something again from her suspicious husband. Therefore it came to no surprise when she robbed the jewelry shop. She had been followed the entire way back to Paris and hadn’t even noticed it.

He shook his head. Talk about a loveless marriage where her husband had used the first chance to get rid of her. He probably had a mistress somewhere that he was tired of hiding.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. It had been cases like this for a while now. Nobody seemed to dare going against the Ministry and its Aurors these days except some of the very crazy ones, like the ginger witch. It wasn’t even his job to investigate robbery cases like these. It was the job of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, but since the Aurors had nothing better to do these days they would also be assigned to do these cases. Consequently, his job was very boring these days. 

There was also of course the matter of suspicious murders and disappearances these days but the minister wasn’t really willing to do anything about those yet, or admit that there even were any problems to investigate at all. Somehow this all seemed too familiar to him. 

He snorted. Stupid politicians. He knew of course what was going on, having the benefit of past and future knowledge. 

He stood up and nodded to the warden, before leaving the room. He didn’t get far before he was stopped by another Auror, Ollie Wright, who looked relieved at having found him.  
“Evans, I had been searching for you. Riddle wants you in his office. Probably something to do with that disappearance case…” He paused when Harry interrupted him, eyes bright. “There is a case, really? Finally something to do.” He smirked before passing Wright and making his way to the office of the one Tom Marvolo Riddle. 

Ollie watched him go with a perplexed look on his face and muttered. “Everyone is going crazy.” He walked towards the hallway where Evans had disappeared to, all the way shaking his head.

###### 

Tom Marvolo Riddle, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, looked up from his paperwork when he heard a knock on his door.

He returned to his work before calling out. “Come in.”

Auror Harry Evans stepped inside and after a quick glance at his busy Department Head, closed the door behind him. 

“You wanted to see me sir?” Harry asked while walking towards the desk. He didn’t get an answer immediately so he waited for the man on the desk to finish his work while his eyes wandered on his profile. He didn’t try to be secretive about his observation. If the man was going to make him wait in front of his desk, then he might as well stare at him until he felt uncomfortable enough to look up. 

He snorted softly enough that the other man couldn’t hear him. He seriously doubted that the other man was capable of being intimidated or even being uncomfortable by anyone. He was the Dark Lord Voldemort after all, not that he was supposed to know that. 

He looked up from the man’s chest into his blue eyes when he finally spoke. “Do you know why you are here Auror Evans?” He asked, finally gazing up into his green eyes. 

Harry crossed his arms before answering. “I assume it’s about the disappearance of Augustus Rookwood, one of the Unspeakables.” 

Tom Riddle nodded. “The Head Auror recommended you specifically for this case. I want you to track down Rookwood, preferably alive, and capture whoever kidnapped him into custody, if it is indeed a kidnapping case like assumed.” His gaze was intense as he looked Harry directly into the eyes. “I’m personally interested into this case. The work that the Unspeakables are doing cannot be spread to the outside. It might end in a disaster.”

He stood up and walked around his desk before standing in front of Harry. They were the same height, but the man still seemed to tower over him with his presence. “You’ll not disappoint me, will you Harry?” he asked with his silky voice.

Harry made sure to gulp before answering. “Of course not Sir. I’ll find Rookwood.”

Riddle smirked, before sitting back down on his chair. “Good. The case file is with your Head Auror. Now get to work.”

###### 

_November 15, 1966_

It had been a day like any other for Augustus Rookwood. He woke up at the usual time, had breakfast and left his home for the Ministry of Magic. He had worked in the Department of Mysteries. On that day it had been in the Space Chamber. Afterwards he had left the Ministry to apparate home, but before he could even think of it, he had been hit with something and the next thing he knew, he was in a dark room with no wand or any mean to get out of there. 

That was weeks ago. 

He didn’t know who his captor was. Food and water would appear periodically. There were no windows so he didn’t even know how long exactly it had been or what time it was. Thankfully there was a small toilet inside the room, but no shower or sink. He shook visibly and looked around the room. He had thought about killing himself, his mind slowly getting into darker places with each passing day, but he hadn’t given up, knowing his Lord was most likely searching for him. He wasn’t a lowly Death Eater that could be left to his fate. He was valuable. There was no other spy in the Department of Mysteries. 

He looked up sharply when he heard a loud noise, but relaxed when he saw that it was his daily meal. He stood up and walked over to the food. He thought again about who his captor might be while eating. It must be someone who knew about his Lord’s occupation as the Dark Lord. 

He made a head count. Dumbledore maybe? He shook his head a moment later, labeling himself ridiculous. The old man didn’t have it in himself to lock someone up for days let alone weeks. The remaining fractions of Grindelwald, who didn’t want to bow to another Dark Lord maybe? He nodded his head thoughtfully. That seemed to make more sense now. 

His eyes widened when he heard another crack, this time most definitely not the food. He sprang to his feet when he saw a cloaked figure in black. The only visible part was the lower part of his face. He was obviously a male, as he could make out the toned muscles hidden behind the cloak. “What do you want from me?” he asked, voice cracking a little at the end. 

The hooded figure didn’t answer him immediately, studying him silently. Augustus felt nervous under his stare. What was he going to do with him? He wasn’t going to kill him, was he? It had been a while since he was captured, and his captor had neither showed up nor asked for any kind of information. He probably needed him for something. 

Augustus looked up at that thought. _That was it!_ The man needed him! He probably was going to use him against his Lord. He snorted silently. He knew that he was valuable to his Lord. The man was probably going to try to rescue him personally, not trusting anyone else to do the job. What if he got hurt in the process? He couldn’t let his Lord get hurt, he had to protect him! He gazed at the man again, who had until now not shown any indication of wanting to approach him. His hands were fully visible and free of any wand. If Augustus acted now, he could take him by surprise. If he could get his hands on the man’s wand, then it would be easy to _stupor_ him and bring him to the Dark Lord as a surprise. 

He hadn’t even finished that thought process, and the next thing he knew, he was lunging at the cloaked man. He pushed his whole weight on him and both of them tumbled down to the floor. He got a hold of the man’s hands and sat on him, pushing him as much as he could. Only after noticing the lack of resistance did he think of concentrating on the man’s face, that was totally visible now, the hood having fallen off. He had black hair and green eyes, and he didn’t look concerned at all with their position, making him sweat inconspicuously.

His opposite smirked. “What do I want from you? Well what you want from is pretty obvious with the way you are sitting on me. Does this turn you on?” He asked, his voice like velvet. 

Augustus jumped back in sudden disgust, and in the next moment he could have slapped himself for falling for the man’s trick. He tried to topple the man again in the next second, but a sudden force pushed him to the opposite wall, his hands and feet glued and unable to move. 

The unknown man pushed himself off the wall and walked towards him, shaking imagined dust off his shoulders. Augustus tried to free himself before he had reached him but it was impossible, and he still couldn’t see any wand on the man. 

“How can you perform magic without a wand?” He asked, trying to buy time to get out of his bindings, and also a little with curiosity. Wandless magic was extremely rare and most of the time unheard of. He knew his master could perform some, and he supposed a powerful wizard like Albus Dumbledore, but even his master couldn’t have done, what this wizard did without a wand.

The black haired man smirked, his smile not reaching his unusual eyes. He didn’t answer in words but instead closed his eye in concentration. And then he _changed_. The changes weren’t that obvious. His hair and eye color stayed the same, but his green eyes increased in their intensity, seemingly unnatural. His face looked a little more lithe, but his height didn’t change, not that he was a small man to begin with. Overall, these small changes made the man look even more handsome. He had been handsome from the beginning but now, he had an unnatural touch to it.

Then Augustus noticed the ears. His ears had grown, the tips now pointy. He gulped. He had an idea now what the man was, even though he had never seen one in his life. They rarely showed themselves among humans, preferring to stay in their own company. It was known that they had their home somewhere in one of the northern countries, but whoever was lucky enough to have visited them, seemed to forget the exact location. They were capable of powerful elemental magic. That was probably what was holding him firmly against the wall right now. 

The man was an Elf. 

He coughed slightly before asking. “What does an elf want against my Lord?” He asked since he was very sure that was the reason he was held here. 

The elf smirked. “I am an Auror you see, and I need the attention of your Lord on me. What better way than to solve a case he is interested in?” He said. 

Augustus’ eyes widened. When he spoke his voice was full of disbelief. “You can’t be an Auror. Elves cannot do Wizarding magic. They would have noticed that something was wrong with you in days.” He said with conviction. “And my Lord wouldn’t send a lowly Auror to find me anyway. I’m too valuable to him.”

The elf looked at him in disbelief, his eyebrows disappearing behind his hair. “You really think a lot of yourself don’t you? Sorry to disappoint my dear Augustus, but he didn’t care enough to search for you. He sent me.” He said smirking. “He didn’t know of course that I was the one kidnapping you in the first place.”

He then took out a wand, looking thoughtfully to the fallen death eater. 

Augustus shouted at him. “How so you have a wand. You are not capable of using it.” He said. 

The elf rolled his eyes. “I am special you see.” He said and didn’t elaborate further. He muttered something under his breath, and the next thing Augustus knew, was darkness.

###### 

Calanon looked thoughtfully at the half-eaten body of Augustus Rookwood. He knew that maybe he went too far with dropping the man’s body into the forbidden forest inside the territory of the spiders, but he needed a good way to get off all the evidence and get attention towards it at the same time. The spiders had cleaned the meat cleanly off his body, and on what was left, the venom had done a good job. He didn’t want anybody to know what his captor had done to him, or lack thereof. He needed it to look like the man was kidnapped for a reason and a normal kidnapped would have tortured him. There would have been evidence on the body of that and if he was whole, then the Aurors would have been suspicious of why he was kidnapped in the first place. He didn’t also want them to think this was a hate crime. 

He looked up when he heard noises behind the bushes. Then it became galloping noises and he relaxed a little, knowing what was coming. 

Sure enough, two Centaurs appeared inside the field, surrounded by the threes. They had their bows withdrawn, ready to attack whoever had dared to show themselves inside their forest, before they stopped at seeing him. The bows were lowered and so were their heads.

They didn’t speak after bowing. Respectful of the elf. Calanon shook his head in annoyance. “You can stand up.” He said, his annoyance barely covered. He looks towards the corpse again before speaking. “This area is going to be covered in Wizards in a few hours. I would disappear for a while if I were you.” He said, looking directly into the eyes of Centaurs who towered over him. 

One of them finally spoke then. “May we know if this is Elf business or personal business? Our King will surely want to know.” He said respectfully. 

Calanon shook his head. “Personal.” He said, knowing most of the Elves wouldn’t be happy about his occupation these days. He rather wouldn’t want it spread among the magical creatures about what he was up to these days. His dearest friend Cugedhiel* would have a good laugh at his expense. “Please tell you King, Brypetus, to keep this to himself.” He said. 

The Centaurs nodded shortly before disappearing as quickly as they came. 

He looked towards the corpse one last time, something like regret starting to make itself known in his deepest parts. 

“Sorry Augustus Rookwood, what I’m doing might be even more important than your life. I need his attention on me.” He said regretfully. 

He disappeared then silently.

###### 

The Forbidden Forest had reached its record for most daily human presences that day, thanks to the gruesome murder of Unspeakable Augustus Rookwood. 

Tom Riddle looked around the clearing, stopping shortly at the corpse in disgust, before continuing his search. Finally he found him speaking to another Auror. The man looked handsome in his pure black robe, speaking calmly to his friend maybe? He didn’t know if that was his friend, and he suddenly had the urge to find out, to unravel everything about this man until nothing was left out to find out, and he could move on with his curiosity satisfied. 

Harry had felt him of course, while answering to the stupid questions of Auror Travers. The presence was hard to miss. Therefore he wasn’t surprised like his colleague when he spoke suddenly in the middle of their conversation. “Auror Evans. May I have a word please?” He asked, completely disregarding the other Auror.

Harry shrugged apologetically at Travers before turning towards his Department Head. “Of course sir.” He said, following the man towards a more private part of the forest after his gesture to follow him. He walked until all the noise was repressed by the trees. 

The Dark Lord looked him into the eyes for a while, probably trying to gauge him, before speaking. “Tell me exactly what happened here. I suppose you didn’t talk to anybody before you talked to me?” He asked, voice dangerously low and threatening. 

Harry shook his head. “No Sir, I was very vague.” He said.

The man nodded, gesturing him to start with his explanation.

“I asked around the unspeakable office of the usual methods Rookwood took to get in and out of the Ministry. I was told that he usually apparatus, so I found his usual spot. I performed a DNA match spell to see if there were any clues around and found some drops of blood. Therefore I came to the conclusion that he was taken down before he could reach his hom-“ Then he was interrupted rudely. 

“There were other investigators on this case before you Evans. The DNA matching spell is the standard one, how come they didn’t find these clues before you did?” He asked with narrowed eyes. 

Harry shrugged, looking unconcerned. “They probably didn’t find the right spot sir.” He said. Or he hadn’t implanted the evidence yet, he thought to himself.

Tom Riddle mustered him for a while before gestured him to continue, seemingly satisfied. “Then I did the standard backtracking spell. I was lucky that the house where Rookwood was held didn’t have any protection spells, but I guess it could also have been since the deed was already done.” He said, “I saw a blackboard full of Rookwood’s pictures. He had obviously been followed for a while. There was a section titled death where the forbidden forest was pictured so I looked for him here, but could only find his corpse.” 

Riddle looked thoughtful. Did you get any insight in the board about what he wanted with him? The spiders were obviously a mean to get rid of any evidence on the body.” He asked.

Harry shook his head. “No sir, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it to be honest since I was more concerned about finding Rookwood.”

Riddle nodded. “I suppose the house is as it was when you left it. You didn’t tell anyone about it yet?” He asked.

Harry shook his head. “No sir, but they’ll ask me about the circumstances soon. I’ll have to talk then.”

Riddle smirked. “Don’t worry about it. No one will ask you questions I’ll make sure of it.” He then continued. “Oh and Harry, you won’t talk to anyone about this will you?” He asked in a low voice. 

Of course Harry wouldn’t talk to anyone about it. He wanted the attention of the man, not his anger.  
Harry looked amused. “No sir, as long as you want me to keep my mouth shut, I will. You are the department head after all.” He said, making sure to add some admiration into his voice.  
Tom Riddle smirked. “You and I, are going to get along splendidly, Auror Evans” He said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * The Ginger Witch: An American serial criminal. She appeared in newspapers in the movies  
> * Cugedhiel: One of Calanon’s elven friends. She also appeared in the prologue.


End file.
